You may own the best PC or gaming laptop, but that won’t be enough for smooth gameplay if your internet isn’t any good. For the ultimate gaming experience, you need to sign up with an ISP that can accommodate all your gaming requirements. At the end of the day, you get what you pay for, but first, you ought to know what to look for.
If your current internet connection isn’t cut out to support your online gaming sessions, do your research before replacing it. Perhaps you need to shift to a different type of internet connection? Maybe upgrading your internet plan is the simple answer to your conundrums! You cannot determine the right course of action unless you are aware of what you need.
Here’s what you need to look out for when choosing an ISP for seamless gaming online:
1. Download and Upload Speed
When you’re in the market for gaming-friendly internet, it’s mandatory to aim for high speed. Most online games, especially those involving multiple players, require frequent and heavy data transfers. If your internet is slow, you’ll experience interrupted gameplay and the graphics will be all over the place.
Most gamers choose fiber optic internet because it offers matching download and upload speeds. This means you can upload data to the internet as fast as you download data from the internet. With other types of traditional connection, the upload speed is much lower than the download speed; symmetrical speeds are optimal for gamers who are also live streamers.
If you don’t have a fiber optic ISP in your area, you can choose a reliable cable internet provider like Xfinity instead. Check out Xfinity internet offers to boost your gameplay without breaking the bank.
2. Bandwidth
The bandwidth of your internet is the amount of data that can be downloaded or uploaded from your computer per unit of time. The higher your internet connection’s bandwidth, the better the overall speed. As I mentioned earlier, online gaming does not require ultrafast internet – you can easily get away with 100 Mbps.
The minimum required speed for playing games online is 25Mbps, but we wouldn’t call it practical. Most ISPs do not deliver the same speed and bandwidth as stated in their plans. For instance, if you’ve signed up for 300Mbps, it’s the maximum speed you can expect. However, most of the time the speed you get will be marginally or significantly lower.
To conclude, if you purchase a 25Mbps plan, you might only get 20 Mbps on average. Another factor that affects your internet speed is multiple users sharing a network, since the bandwidth gets divided among them. As a result of this, you may encounter even slower speeds. Opting for a high-speed plan allows you to enjoy smooth gameplay even when multiple gamers/streamers are sharing the network.
3. Latency
Latency, also known as ping, is a term of utmost importance when speaking of gamer-friendly internet. Since online gaming involves heaps of data transfer between two or more sources, the process is supposed to be quick to enable smooth gameplay.
Latency is the time it takes a data packet to travel from sender to receiver, and it is measured in milliseconds (ms). When choosing an ISP for gaming, you need to look the one that supports lower latency, preferably below 40ms. A ping rate between 40 – 60ms is also decent, but anything above 100ms is unacceptable for gaming. An internet connection with a latency beyond 100ms will noticeably impair gameplay.
High latency results in the delay of data transfers, so your game lags. If you want to check your internet’s latency, conduct a free speed test and find out. Apart from the quality of internet, your computer specs can also impact latency. Your computer’s GPU must be up to par if you want to enjoy high-quality graphics and efficient gameplay.
4. Data Limits & Contracts
If you are sharing your space and network with multiple gamers/streamers, data caps imposed by your ISP can be a problem. Multiplayer and competitive gaming can deplete meager data limits rather quickly, which results in speed throttling.
If you don’t want to encounter slow speeds or pay for additional data, choose an ISP that offers unlimited data. With unlimited data, you never have to worry about exceeding your limit or losing your chosen speed privileges.
Several ISPs require users to enter a term contract in exchange for better prices. Unfortunately, this can be a trap, so beware. For example, if you enter a year-long contract but end up unsatisfied with the service a month later, you may not be able to claim a refund; some ISPs even charge a termination fee.
5. Customer Service
The best ISPs out there are the ones who care about their customers. When you’re shopping for gaming internet, do not forget to assess user satisfaction rates. What are people saying about the customer support provided by the ISP in question? Is it easy to reach out to them and report an issue? How quickly do they respond and solve your problem? If customers are shaming an ISP for never returning their calls or taking weeks (or longer) to resolve an issue, consider this a red flag. In short, if an ISP passes the five key requirements mentioned above, you can look forward to a wonderful online gaming experience.
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